Case Number 17716

BRUNO (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Borat was so 2006.

Opening Statement

"How do you protect yourself from a dildo?"

Facts of the Case

Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street) is a gay Austrian television fashion show host who desperately
craves fame. In order to achieve international stardom, he determines to travel
to Los Angeles and...well, he'll figure it out as he goes along. Whether it's
doing celebrity interviews, trying to make a sex tape with Ron Paul, adopting an
African child, or hosting a pro wrestling match, Bruno will do what it takes to
ensure that everyone knows his name.

The Evidence

The first hour of Sacha Baron Cohen's much-acclaimed Borat was smart,
edgy satire, but I felt that the last half-hour devolved into little more than
cheap shock value. If you were one of those who felt that the naked wrestling
scene was far and away the comic high point of Borat, then I suspect
Bruno will be right up your alley. If, like me, you found Borat
most compelling when it was using the character for savvier cultural commentary,
then you may find Bruno rather exasperating. Despite fleeting moments of
insight and a handful of genuine laughs, Bruno is primarily interested in
demonstrating how far Sacha Baron Cohen is willing to go in order to get a
giggle.

Bruno poses as a movie that is attempting to expose the bigotry and
homophobia of Americans (particularly those that live in the Deep South), but I
actually feel that the film is a bit homophobic itself. In addition to being a
genuinely horrible human being (he's racist, self-absorbed, rude, and willing to
do absolutely anything to achieve fame), Bruno is a standard-issue gay
stereotype dialed up to 11. Unfortunately, he's more or less the only
representative of the gay community in the film (aside from his dim-witted,
little-seen sidekick and his wildly experimental lover). Bruno is a film
that can be seen and enjoyed by many people with homophobic tendencies, because
it offers up a definition of "gay" that fits within very stereotyped
parameters. Heck, it might even make some of these folks feel good about
themselves. After all, they're not as shamelessly homophobic as those pro
wrestling fans in Alabama, right?

A.O. Scott of The New York Times offered a spot-on observation in his review
of the film: "An early sequence that graphically shows Bruno and his lover
exerting themselves in various positions and with the assistance of, among other
things, a Champagne bottle, a fire extinguisher, and a specifically modified
exercise machine, derives its humor less from the extremity of their practices
than from the assumption that sex between men is inherently gross, weird, and
comical." Exactly. Beneath all of the supposed social commentary and
"shocking" steps out of bounds, there is the overwhelming sense that
Bruno is still running on those tired old "Tee-hee, two men are
kissing each other!" fumes. In the world of Bruno, you're either a
boring old straight person or a wild, sex-crazed queen. I'm sure that Cohen and
director Larry Charles don't actually view the world this way, but their film is
exasperatingly small-minded. Even Elton John is forced to sing about anal
bleaching.

But let's put aside the issues of political correctness and whether or not
the film is itself homophobic. On a more basic level, Bruno just doesn't
really work as a comedy. Cohen relies way too heavily on displaying his own body
in provocative ways for comic effect. Cheers to him for being so fearless, but
it gets old very quickly. The yellow swimsuit in Borat was amusing
because it was unexpected. In Bruno, the shock of seeing Cohen in some
sort of very revealing costume (or no costume at all, for that matter) wears off
very quickly. Nonetheless, the actor continues to believe that we'll be amused
by the constant nudity/near-nudity, so he continues to strut his stuff at every
possible turn. The moment when a naked Cohen attempts to sneak into a hunter's
tent in the middle of the night should be funnier than it is, but it doesn't
work for two reasons. First, Cohen has been naked so frequently at that point
that we're no longer surprised, and second, it's hard to be too condemning of
the hunter for getting so irritable about a naked man attempting to crawl into
his tent in the middle of the night.

Speaking of Bruno's interactions with people in the real world, another
problem with the film is that it picks easy targets. Sure, bigoted wrestling
fans, members of the Westboro Baptist Church (the "God Hates Fags"
people), and audience members at Jerry Springer-style reality programs
may be deserving of ridicule, but they're such easy targets. Cohen isn't
exposing embarrassingly awful behavior, he's simply inserting himself into the
sort of nonsense that can be seen on television every day and smugly saying,
"Look at these idiots!" There are also moments that seem to backfire
slightly on Cohen, as his efforts to draw out someone's bigotry get a bit
desperate. Is the manner in which Cohen treats Ron Paul really justified just
because Paul calls Cohen "queer" later on? I'm not sure. Likewise,
Cohen's conversation with a pastor who has dedicated his life to
"curing" gays doesn't quite work. Are such methods deserving of
satire? Certainly, but the pastor maintains his composure and treats Bruno with
kindness and respect even when our protagonist tells the pastor he has
"great blowjob lips."

Finally, there's the overwhelming sense of deja vu. Cohen attempts to
re-capture lightning in a bottle by mimicking Borat in many ways. The
plot is almost a beat-for-beat copy (foreigner comes to America on a mission
with submissive sidekick tagging along), and many of the comedic bits seem to be
attempting to create "improvised" moments very similar to the famous
scenes from Borat (just try to convince me that the pro wrestling
conclusion isn't a blatant attempt to match the wrestling scene from Cohen's
previous film).

It's a bit challenging to give a grade to the picture quality, since a large
portion of the film is presented via subpar "captured" video footage
that looks very much like rough documentary material. It's all part of the
artistic effect (and partially due to the fact that some of this stuff was
filmed via hidden cameras), but it doesn't look amazing in hi-def. That said,
the scenes that were shot in a more polished manner look very strong and
detailed. The audio has similar issues, as much of it is the sort of slightly
muffled material you expect to accompany rough-looking footage. The soundtrack
numbers (which veer from witty to insufferable) certainly come through with
clarity and strength, particularly the "music video" number that plays
over the end credits.

The best supplement is a video commentary with Cohen and Charles, which is
arguably even more compelling than the film itself. The pair shares a wide
variety of colorful stories regarding the film's making, and shed at least some
light on what is real and what is staged. Aside from that, you get a whopping 40
minutes of deleted scenes (including that Michael Jackson-reference that was
hastily cut from the film after Jackson's death), over 20 minutes of extended
scenes, and 5 minutes of alternate scenes. You also get a brief 5-minute
interview with talent agent Lloyd Robinson, who plays a key part during one
stretch of the film. Finally, you get a digital copy of the film, and the disc
is equipped with BD-Live. Oh, and the disc menus are presented in German, for
whatever that's worth.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

There are moments littered throughout the film that undeniably hit the mark,
offering an indication of what Bruno could have been if Cohen's ambitions
were a bit more...um, ambitious. The scene in which the character consults a
"Charity PR Firm" to figure out which charities are most fashionable
at the moment speaks volumes about what an empty facade many celebrity social
causes are. There's also a truly scathing sequence in which Bruno interviews a
series of mothers who want their babies to participate in a fashion photo shoot.
Bruno asks the mothers whether they'll be comfortable with things that no mother
should be comfortable with, and every mother eagerly says yes. These women are
so desperate for their children to achieve fame that they throw sanity and
reason out the window. Not only do they agree to everything Bruno demands of
them, they do so without blinking or hesitating for a moment. After all, any
signs of doubt might lose them the job.

Closing Statement

I'm certain that some of you will simply think me a closed-minded square for
disliking this film as much as I do, but it's honestly not the extremity of the
content that bothers me. It's the thoughtless irresponsibility of the comedy,
which I believe has the potential to do far more damage than good. The smart and
perceptive moments in this film aren't enough to compensate for the ugly
stereotypes and general mean-spiritedness.